Tomako or tomoko is a large war canoe from the

Solomon Islands Solomon Islands, also known simply as the Solomons,John Prados, ''Islands of Destiny'', Dutton Caliber, 2012, p,20 and passim is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 1000 smaller islands in Melanesia, part of Oceania, t ...

. The name "tomako" is used in

New Georgia New Georgia, with an area of , is the largest of the islands in Western Province (Solomon Islands), Western Province, Solomon Islands, and the List of islands by area, 203rd-largest island in the world. Since July 1978, the island has been par ...

in the

Roviana language Roviana is a member of the North West Solomonic branch of Oceanic languages. It is spoken around Roviana and Vonavona lagoons at the north central New Georgia in the Solomon Islands. It has 10,000 first-language speakers and an additional 16,00 ...

. It is also known as magoru in Marovo, niabara in

Vella Lavella Vella Lavella is an island in the Western Province (Solomon Islands), Western Province of Solomon Islands. It lies to the west of New Georgia, but is considered one of the New Georgia Islands, New Georgia Group. To its west are the Treasury Isla ...

, mon in Bougainville, ora in

Makira The island of Makira (previously known as San Cristóbal) is the largest island of Makira-Ulawa Province in Solomon Islands. It is third most populous of the Solomon Islands after Malaita and Guadalcanal, with a population of 55,126 as of 2020 ...

, and iola or ola in

Malaita Malaita is the primary island of Malaita Province in Solomon Islands. Malaita is the most populous island of the Solomon Islands, with a population of 161,832 as of 2021, or more than a third of the entire national population. It is also the se ...

and

Ulawa Ulawa Island is an island in Solomon Islands. It is located near Malaita Island and belongs to Makira-Ulawa Province. The island has an area of . A hilly island, its highest point is above sea level. Average temperatures are around 27 ° ...

. Tomako were narrow and usually between in length. They did not possess

outriggers An outrigger is a projecting structure on a boat, with specific meaning depending on types of vessel. Outriggers may also refer to legs on a wheeled vehicle that are folded out when it needs stabilization, for example on a crane that lifts he ...

or sails and were propelled solely by paddling. They were built by fitting planks edge-to-edge which are then "sewn" together and

caulk Caulk (also known as caulking and calking) is a material used to Seal (mechanical), seal Joint (building), joints or seams against leakage in various structures and piping. The oldest form of caulk consisted of fibrous materials driven into ...

ed with a paste made from the nut of the tree ''

Parinarium laurinum ''Parinari'' is a genus of plant in the family Chrysobalanaceae. Species of genus ''Parinari'' are found in Subsaharan Africa from Senegal to Sudan and Kenya and south to Namibia and Natal; in Eastern Madagascar; from Indochina through Indonesi ...

''. They could carry 30 to 50 warriors, and were used in raiding expeditions for slaves or for

headhunting Headhunting is the practice of hunting a human and collecting the severed head after killing the victim. More portable body parts (such as ear, nose, or scalp) can be taken as trophies, instead. Headhunting was practiced in historic times ...

. They were characteristically crescent-shaped, with sharply upturned prows and sterns (reaching up to high) that were decorated with fringes of

cowrie shell Cowrie or cowry () is the common name for a group of small to large sea snails in the family Cypraeidae. Cowrie shells have held cultural, economic, and ornamental significance in various cultures. The cowrie was the shell most widely used wo ...

nautilus A nautilus (; ) is any of the various species within the cephalopod family Nautilidae. This is the sole extant family of the superfamily Nautilaceae and the suborder Nautilina. It comprises nine living species in two genera, the type genus, ty ...

shells, and

mother-of-pearl Nacre ( , ), also known as mother-of-pearl, is an organicinorganic composite material produced by some molluscs as an inner shell layer. It is also the material of which pearls are composed. It is strong, resilient, and iridescent. Nacre is ...

, as well as intricate carvings (Roviana: ''nguzunguzu''; Marovo: ''toto isu''). These carvings are usually of spirit animals or warriors like the ''kesoko'' (a bird or sea spirit) and Tiolo (a warrior deity). The body is commonly blackened to contrast with the decorations. Tomako usually took 2 to 3 years to build using traditional stone and shell adzes. They were kept in sacred houses known as ''paele'', which also housed human heads taken during battle. Tomako is similar to the lisi, another common boat type in the Solomon Islands which also lacks outriggers, but differs in that the topmost

strake On a vessel's Hull (watercraft), hull, a strake is a longitudinal course of Plank (wood), planking or Plate (metal), plating which runs from the boat's stem (ship), stempost (at the Bow (ship), bows) to the stern, sternpost or transom (nautica ...

s of the lisi have a gap in the middle. It also resembles the

orembai Orembai or Arombai is a type of plank boat from the Maluku Islands of Eastern Indonesia. It is mainly used for fishing and transport. This vessel is used as far as Batavia, where in the 17th century it became popular to go out "''orembaaien''" on ...

of the

Maluku Islands The Maluku Islands ( ; , ) or the Moluccas ( ; ) are an archipelago in the eastern part of Indonesia. Tectonics, Tectonically they are located on the Halmahera Plate within the Molucca Sea Collision Zone. Geographically they are located in West ...

, except the latter usually has a sail. The last canoes used for war were confiscated by the British colonial government in the Solomon Islands during the early 1900s to stop

raids. It was eventually bought by a private German collector. However, new canoes were built at around 1910–1912. They were used for canoe-racing, encouraged by the colonial government to preserve the traditional boatbuilding practices. In the 11th

Festival of Pacific Arts The Festival of Pacific Arts and Culture (FestPAC), also known as the Pacific Arts Festival, is a travelling festival hosted every four years in Oceania. It was conceived by the Pacific Community as a means to stem erosion of traditional cultu ...

in 2012 hosted by the Solomon Islands, several Tomako were built and displayed.

Gallery

File:PSM V35 D501 Head hunting canoe and canoe house at rubiana.jpg, Woodcut illustration of a tomako stored in a paele (c. 1889) File:Tomako (Solomon Islands, 1918).jpg, An ornamented tomako (c. 1918) File:Head-hunting canoe from Ysabel (Canoes of the British Solomon Islands, 1909).jpg, A tomako from

Santa Isabel Island Santa Isabel (also known as Isabel, Ysabel and Mahaga) is the largest island An island or isle is a piece of land, distinct from a continent, completely surrounded by water. There are continental islands, which were formed by being split ...

(c. 1909)

References

{{Austronesian ships Austronesian ships

Gallery

See also

References